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Watch the Tesla Semi smoke some rubber in a sprint

Tesla's future truck was spied showing off its acceleration ability

February 23, 2018

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Since its debut, the Tesla Semi has sparked plenty of commentary about its capabilities and interior layout -- and plenty of preorders from large retailers that operate fleets of delivery trucks along a set route.

YouTube user Richard Fielder recently spotted the Semi in a warehouse district doing a quick hustle after a rolling start, smoking its tires a bit in the process.

From the very beginning, the electric automaker promised some hair-raising performance stats for this truck: 0-60 mph in 5 seconds without a trailer, and about 20 seconds to 60 mph when paired with a trailer loaded to 80,000 pounds.

First of all, 5 seconds to 60 mph is plenty fast even for a sports car -- this was supercar territory until about a decade ago -- and only thanks to the German horsepower wars did these acceleration times become more or less achievable on a healthy budget.

Second, in the world of trucking is this kind of acceleration that buyers of semis are looking for, or is this just Tesla showing off? These 0-60 times certainly allow a rig to school some slow hybrids from the lights, but that's coming pretty close to what The Law would call an unsafe start. This type of performance also seems like something that fleet operators -- the customers for these trucks -- would frown upon as it not only depletes the battery but also requires equally impressive braking power to get a truck to actually stop.

Tesla's truck is powered by four electric motors borrowed from the Model 3, one for each of the four drive wheels, and boasts regenerative braking, which, according to Elon Musk, gives the truck "quasi-infinite brake life." Tesla is promising a 500-mile range for the Semi on a full charge, with a charging time of 30 minutes to get 400 miles on range when using a Megacharger, which will be installed at the trucks' base locations.

The main selling point, of course, is lower running costs for fleet operators.

"A diesel is 20 percent more expensive than a Tesla from day one," Musk said in unveiling the truck. "And that’s assuming the Tesla is operated in the worst-case scenario."